What really happened to the Romanov family? It’s a question that has plagued Russians for almost a century.

It is one of the most brutal moments in Russia’s history: the murder of deposed Czar Nicholas II and his entire family, shot to death by a Bolshevik firing squad sometime during the night of July 16-17, 1918.

Or, so the story goes.

For almost a century, there has been a seed of doubt about what really happened to the Romanovs.

Who issued the orders to kill? Could anyone have survived? And what about those persistent rumours that one of the children, notably 17-year-old Anastasia, somehow managed to escape?

It appears some of the rumours can now be put to rest. A recent exhibit at the Russian State Archives of Moscow put on display, for the first time, crucial artifacts that seem to piece together the real story of the Romanovs.

But there is at least one powerful group that refuses to believe the history book is closed.

In the middle of the night on July 17, 1918, Nicholas II, his wife, their five children and four servants were ushered from a cellar in Yekaterinburg.

They had been staying there since Nicholas abdicated in 1917. Their Bolshevik captors told them they were being moved to a safe location. But when they were assembled, they were shot to death.

“None of the Romanovs were saved on that terrible night, and all the remains of the family and those who were with them have now been accounted for,” Sergei Mironenko, director of the Russian State Archives and co-organizer of the exhibition, told the Wall Street Journal recently.

The exhibit brought together evidence from three separate investigations, including investigator notebooks and bullets, according to the newspaper. Also on display was material gathered by investigators shortly after the killings, as well as in post-Soviet times, such as family objects and clothing, said the BBC.

In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their five children — Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia — were discovered in a shallow burial pit near Yekaterinburg.

They were reinterred in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg on July 17, 1998.

Before that time, however, several women claimed to be Anastasia, including Anna Anderson, who died in 1984 still insisting she was the youngest daughter of the last Russian emperor.

It was not until 2007 that the bodies of son Alexei and the fourth daughter, Maria, were found. They have yet to be interred.

It is still unclear, according to expert Robert Johnson, whether the murder was carried out on direct orders from Moscow or local officials in Yekaterinburg.

The Russian Orthodox Church does not recognize the authenticity of the Alexei and Maria remains. The Wall Street Journal reports the church instead believes what the original investigator argued in 1919 — that the bodies were burned.

The church has voiced extreme caution over the remains of Alexei and Maria. Some say this undermines the new exhibit, which purports to close the case.

The royal family was canonized in 2000 by the church to the status of “passion bearers.” Outside Russia, the family is recognized as martyrs.

“There is one part of Russian public opinion that dreams of restoring the monarchy and there are many among the orthodox who are calling for full canonization,” said Johnson, Russia and Eurasia program co-ordinator at University of Toronto’s Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies.

“The saga of the family is certainly of great interest to a great many people.”